Sunday, 23 November 2014

Just two lonely souls out making the most of the weather. Just Joe and myself at the bus stop today. Joe hasn't been out for a while (drinking got in the way) by his own admission he was out to pay penance for his sins, I was just off nights so looking for an easy enough spin. Sunny skies and very little wind we were spoilt for route choice.I called coffee stop in Comber. So off we headed on a route avoiding hopefully the worst of yesterday's puddles.

The plan was a route up Carryduff, branching off towards Saintfield then ducking onto some of the smaller country lanes to test the waters excuse the pun!!

Popping out at Saintfield the smaller lanes weren't as bad as expected so we cut across towards Listooder heading in the general direction of Crossgar. We ended up in Kilmore,then straight through the roundabout Crossgar and out towards Derryboye. Baloo was next on the hit list and buy this time Joe was starting to feel his absence a little. I opted to stay on the main road which would deliver us safely into Comber. Today's coffee stop, seen us living it up at the Georgian house, who ever said Castlereagh cant do classy?!

Over coffee and scones a route was devised homewards via Scrabo and the Castlereagh hills. The Berg has a saying "bend em don't break em" Joe was about to find out the true meaning of the term.

We took it at steady pace homewards, into ards then left up towards the back of Scrabo and a few twists and turns onto the Comber Road. Being the good sport that he is Joe was up for the tough slog home over Peartree Road then the Gransha Road.Through the Braniel and down the Ballygowan Road seen is home with roughly 70km in the legs.